Azira diplomatically replied to Alexander, “As the pasha said himself, both the temple of Ramuh and the temple of Gaia want the same thing: peace, and prosperity for Zanzan. And thus, though we are currently understaffed, we will try to do our level best.”
This was a politician’s way of saying, ‘We don’t want to help you, and this is our excuse.’
Because the excuse of being understaffed was moot as the temple of Ramuh could just let the priests of Gaia watch their day to day to observation.
It was not like the Gaia priests had to be sat down and taught in a seminar.
Alexander was impressed by this very professional answer.
It was much better than the simple ‘no’ or ‘never’ he had expected.
‘Hmmm, looks like these two are capable of learning,’ Alexander could easily tell that Azira had picked this up from copying him.
“That’s good, that’s good.” Alexander showed a very happy, content countenance to the twins’ answer, appearing to buy their excuse.
And then, after a bit of banter congratulating the twins for their reinstatement to the temple and urging them to uphold the values of the faith of Ramuh, Alexander excused himself to attend the council meeting.
But this time he was not alone, because he intended to introduce a new member to the council, the first-ever female member, the chief of the police, Alexander’s wife- Cambyses.
“Anything I need to know beforehand?” Cambyses asked inside the carriage as they rapidly made the short journey to their house.
“No, not really. Only that I will announce you as a shordar (Baroness),” Alexander lightly replied.
The out-of-the-blue bombastic news naturally shocked Cambyses.
And then, instead of being overjoyed, strangely she began to feel a bit irked.
She was of course not irked by her peerage, she was in fact very happy about the acquisition of a noble title.
But what had irked her was Alexander’s habit of dropping blustering news very casually, in a light breezy tone.
“And you only remembered to tell me this now?” Cambyses asked in a slightly frustrated voice.
“Hahaha,” Alexander only chuckled, only finding his wife’s reaction funny.
“You….” Cambyses playfully kicked Alexander’s ankle with her shoes, understanding that he had done this just as a bit of fun and to see her reaction.
“Why do I need a peerage anyway?” She then off-handedly asked, adding, “It’s not like I’m gonna leave you to manage some unknown lands,” while she gazed out of the window.
She asked this because as Alexander’s main wife, legally, it would be Cambyses’s children who would inherit his position, and in the event that Alexander died prematurely before his children came of age, it would be Cambyses who would rule as regent, making her a kind of a lesser pasha right now, just below Alexander and above all others.
And so Cambyses could see little use for her lands as a shordar (baroness).
The land would likely be managed by Alexander’s staff anyway, so what was the point?
“Firstly because it’s very normal. How can the wife of a pasha be a regular woman with no land?” Alexander started his answer.
Cambyses immediately understood why Alexander would say that such would be too demeaning.
“Because in the eyes of the public, the Pasha’s wife must be someone greater than them?” Cambyses answered by recalling the lessons Alexander had taught her just yesterday.
“Yes.” Alexander nodded, explaining, ” If the public thinks that even an ordinary woman can become the pasha’s wife, then not only they might not see revere us, it could also make the more ambitious ones start buzzing around me.”
“Oh? So it’s for you?” Cambyses sent a teasing smirk, causing Alexander to give a wry smile.
“There’s also the second reason,” Alexander did not bite into Cambyses’s trap and moved on, saying, “When I go on expeditions it will be you who I will leave in charge. It will be you who will lead the council in my absence, it will be you who will deal with the day-to-day running of the lands and it will be you who will deal with any and all emergencies.”
“And to do that, to command all the lords under me effectively without my presence, you will need a noble title… even if it’s in name only.” Alexander reasoned.
Cambyses had not thought about it this way and so hearing Alexander’s reasoning nodded lightly. 𝑜𝑣𝘭.𝘯𝑡
Alexander then gave his last reason, “And thirdly, both Gelene and Ophenia have been promised peerage, so it would look too bad if I did not give one too.”
It had to be said that Cambyses did not covet the fact that Gelene and Ophenia had been promised lands.
Because neither of the women’s children had any claim to Alexander’s position and so giving their mother’s inheritable land was one way for Alexander to favor his own children.
“I see.” Cambyses smiled and then breezily assented, “Then I will not be polite and accept.”
By the time, the couple had finished this exchange, the carriage was already parking itself in the walkway, signaling they had arrived at their destination.
“Darn we’re late,” Alexander muttered when he saw the few carriages parked on his walkway.
While all his retainers had immediately made their way here after Alexander’s speech had ended, the latter’s little discussion with the royals had made him late.
“Hmmp, let them wait,” Cambyses felt her husband was being too pedantic with time.
In her eyes, it was very normal for retainers to wait upon their master, as opposed to what Alexander usually did, which was usually waiting for the others to come.
This viewpoint was very different from Alexander who, due to the influence of his previous life was always very punctual.
“Sorry, I’m late,” Alexander casually apologized as he hurriedly entered the council room on the second floor and took his seat at the head of the table, surrounded by all his retainers.
And Cambyses who was trailing right behind took the empty seat right next to him.
“No, no, my lord, we just got here,” Heliptos was the first to butter Alexander.
“Yes, yes, we have all heard the lord’s speech and it was magnificent,” Menicus was the second to join in.
“The way our lord so casually handled this crisis has been a true eye-opener,” Melodias praised.
“Haha, those scheming rats must be pissing their pants after today, hahaha,” Menes, the least educated of the bunch, showed his appreciation in his own, albeit a bit vulgar way.
Alexander let these empty talks enter through one ear and exit out the next, and instead introduced Cambyses by gesturing his palms toward her, “I’m sure many of you are already familiar with each other but as a formal introduction, she is Cambyses, my wife, and the police chief.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you formally, My lady,” Menicus as the de-facto leader of the council members lightly nodded, to which Cambyses flashed a polite smile, and said,
“The pleasure is all mine. We have seen each other a lot, but I’m glad we finally get the chance to properly talk.”
This casual introduction happened with all the leaders, and though Cambyses knew all the military leaders, Alexander took the time to introduce the civilian ones:
Diaogosis who in charge of lumber and housing.
Uzak oversaw infrastructure such as roads and sewage.
Harun was the head of mining.
Jazum was charged with making the kilns.
And Krishok was the chief tanner, processing not only hide but also linen for cloth.
“Cambyses will be joining us from today on. I hope the senior members of the group can help her get used to things around here,” Alexander lightly smiled as he said, to which came an overwhelmingly positive response, with each of the council members urging Cambyses to come to them for any problem related to their field of administration.
After Cambyses gave a polite reply to each of them, Alexander informed, “For the great achievement of catching a thousand criminals within just a day and preventing widespread chaos to the city, I have decided to reward Cambyses the title of shordar (baroness). What do you think?”
“Fantastic! That’s fantastic my lord,” Menicus being the most experienced of the group read the clues the fastest and with much alacrity supported Alexander.
This was because Menicus easily understood that Alexander was not asking for their permission, he was telling them.
And the others seeing Menicus naturally followed suit, with Melodias’s praise being considered the best by Alexander, which was, “Lady Cambyses’s ability to hunt down traitors to the land has made this poor man feel assured. With her at the helm of the city guards, Zanzan will become our fortress.”
In this way, at least on the surface, all enthusiastically congratulated their mistress.
And the reason why no one objected even when they knew Cambyses’s achievements were a sham was because granting peerage was a right of Alexander, and he needed no reason to do such.
Finally, after being done with all these distractions Alexander finally could start the morning’s council.